Wildfire triggers evacuation order for Malibu

A raging Southern California wildfire has triggered a mandatory evacuation order for the entire beachside city of Malibu.

The fire broke out yesterday northwest of Los Angeles and roared southward, jumping the U.S. 101 freeway early this morning and sweeping into the Santa Monica Mountains.

Malibu has about 13-thousand residents and lies along 21 miles of coast at the southern foot of the mountain range.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department tweets that the fire is headed to the ocean, punctuating the message with the declaration: "Imminent threat!"

The wildfires have forced school closures.

Pepperdine University has canceled classes today at its Malibu and Calabasas campuses. The Calabasas campus is also evacuated.

Malibu public schools are also closed.

To the west in Ventura County, Moorpark College is closed due to the impacts of fire and Wednesday night's deadly mass shooting in nearby Thousand Oaks.

California Lutheran University had already canceled today classes due to the shooting. Cal Lutheran says its Thousand Oaks campus isn’t under evacuation orders but residential students have been put on standby.

The Thousand Oaks-area Conejo Valley Unified School District also has closed all its schools.